Keyed harp



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANTHONY KUHN, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

KEYED HARP.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it knoivn that I, ANTHONY KUHN, of Baltimore, in the State ofMaryland, have invented a new, useful, and Improved Harp or Dulceano;and I do hereby declare that the same is described and represented inthe following specification and drawings.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I Willproceed to describe its construction, use and operation referring to thedrawings in Which the same letters indicate like parts in each of thefigures.

Figure l is a front elevation of the harp. Fig. 2 is a section of Fig.l, through the line -g/.

The harps made prior to the date of my invention Were provided with gutstrings and played With the fingers; such strings are so sensitive andso quickly affected by a slight change in the atmosphere, that when theinstrument is tuned and a piece played before an audience, by the timethe piece is completed the breaths of the audience Will have so changedthe atmosphere, and the atmosphere the strings, that they, or some ofthem Will be quite out of tune; so that they will require tuning beforeanother piece is played, which is a difficult task and understood but byfew musical performers.

It often happens that one or more strings get out of tune before a pieceis half played, so that the performer has to stop and tune them, and ifthey are played in company with other instruments they frequently haveto stop during the performance of a piece, and tune some of the stringsWhile the others go on. Besides if a harp stands idle a short time, thestrings require tuning before a piece can be played. And further a harpis an instrument peculiar to itself and has only a limited number ofstrings, or in Which only a limited number of strings can be used whenconstructed on the old plan, so that the music has to be composedexpressly for, and adapted to the instrument, so that a person Wellskilled in the use of other musical instruments would require a courseof instruction upon the harp before he would be able to play upon it.Besides playing upon the strings of a harp hardens the ends of thefingers, so as to render a harp player incapable of using a needle toadvantage.

The above mentioned defects-to Wit the `difficulty of tuning them16,489, dated January 27, 1857.

liability of harps to get out of tune, and the and the effect upon thefingers-have prevented them from being used except to a very limitedextent. Bel sides the frames of harps have not been made strong enoughto sustain metallic instead of gut strings; and if they were madestronger and Wires put in the place of gut, they Would have to be somuch smaller, that they Would cut the fingers of those Who attempted toplay upon them, so that no person Would use them The design and objectof my invention and improvements is, to remedy all the above mentioneddefects, and such others as may exist, by making an instrument which Icall a harp or dulceano, having the very desirable and peculiar tone ofthe harp; which makes my instrument a most desirable acquisition, as itis played With as much ease and facility as a piano, by any person Whocan play the piano; as it is provided ivith a key board and a framestrong enough to resist the tension of metal Wires, Which I havesubstituted for gut strings; so that When the instrument is tuned, itwill remain in tune as long as a piano. I have also arranged a series ofhammers to act on the metal strings near the suspended bridge, (insteadof near the solid bridge as they do in pianos), which hammers areoperated by keys arranged somewhat after the manner of an upright pianowhich my instrument reseinbles in some respects but is entirelydifferent in others. I arrange the tuning block and solid bridge at thetop of the instrument, and the sounding board and suspended bridge inthe loiver part, so that one half of the length of the strings or moreare extended beyond the sounding board in the open air. so as to makethem produce the peculiar harp sound produced by no other instrument;instead of sounds such as are produced by a piano. And further I havearranged a central bridge at the treble end or side of the instrument,so that the hammers strike the strings between the central and suspendedbridges on one or more of the last octa'ves at the treble end. Andfurther in the arrangement of an increased number of strings and keys soas to enable the performer to produce his flats and Sharps Without thepedals used in the old instruments or harps Which are dispensed with forthis purpose. Lastly in arranging the sounding board and tuning block sofar apart as to leave a large open space between them for the strings tovibrate in beyond the edge of the sounding board.

In the accompanying drawings A, is the back of the frame or case, A, thebot-tom, A2 the sides and A3, the front.

B is the top bar of the case fastened to the sides A2, and t-he back A.The long post D, and the short post E, are fastened to the top of thebar B, in the position represented in the drawing to support theserpentine neck or tuning block F, which is fastened to them. The tuningblock F, may be made of wood or metal or of those two materialscombined, and may be braced if necessari7 from t-he bar B. The soundingboard B is fastened to the top B, sides A2, and bottom A. The hitchplate C, is fastened in front of the sounding board, a thin strip ofwood being placed between them as represented at Zt, Fig. 2. The hitchplate c, may be made of iron, and provided with a series of pins c, c,to which the wires (a, c, are fastened and stretched across thesuspended bridge f, on the sounding board, and across the open space H,solid bridge g, on the turning block, and fastened to the tuning pinsCZ, CZ, in the tuning block F, in the usual manner, these tuning pinsbeing arranged so as to tune the wires by turning the pins.

The hitch plate C, is so formed as to allow t-he short bridge f, f, tobe fastened to the sounding board B, in the position represented in Fig.1, at the treble end, and the double bridge f2, f2, is fastened to thesounding board or bar B, in the position represented; the upper edge ofthis bridge being perforated so that a part of the wires a, a, pass overthe bridge f', and o-ver the lower edge of the bridge f2, and throughthe holes in its upper edge and across the open space H, and over thebridge g, and are fastened to the tuning pins (Z, (Z, as represented;the wires a, a, all pass through the long narrow opening e in the top ofthe case made for that purpose.

The key board L, extends across the front of the instrument and isfastened to the sides A2, to support the keys and striking action whichis constructed and arranged as represented in Fig. 2, of which Z) is thehammer hinged to the standard or bar 2', which is fastened to the sidesA2, A2. The key j, vibrates on the projection or washer around the pinZa, the key being provided with a slot, so as to vibrate upon the pin.This key has the arm m, hinged to it, so as to catch into a notch in theknuckle n, of the hammer hinge, so that when the player strikes theouter end of the key, it forces the hammer against the wire a, strikinga blow to produce the sound required, and when t-he iinger is removedfrom the key the hammer falls back and rests against the bar p, untilthe key is touched again to make it strike another blow. I arrange thehammers to strike the wires a, a, about at the points marked by crossesin the drawing, but the hammers may be made to strike nearer to orfarther from the suspended bridge as may be desirable. I use pedalshowever in my harp or dulceano to operate the damper action, so that theperformer by operating the pedal can allow all the strings to vibrate,and make the volume of sound very full, or only one note or key, or hemay cut the sound short off the whole action being moved by the pedal,so as to make the hammers strike one, two or three strings at pleasure,and thereby produce music far more perfect than can be produced on thecommon harp by the best performers.

By making an additional bridge at the treble end the tones and soundsproduced are more lively, quick and musical. By putting the action,sounding board keyboard in the lower part I am enabled to dispense withthe case to the upper part.

If a string in a musical instrument is struck near the solid bridge thesound or note is hard but if struck near the suspended bridge as in mydulceano the sound is soft, similar to that of a harp. When a string isdrawn over a sounding board it produces sound or music very inferior towhat it does when it is drawn through the air without the board. Forinstance when the sounding board extends the whole length of thestrings, and a string is struck near one end vibrates over and with thesounding board forward and backward until the echo is exhausted by thesounding board. But when the sounding board is only half the length ofthe strings, it can only effect the strings as far as it goes, and thestring is left free in the air beyond it; and does not make that woodensound thatit does when the sounding board extends the whole length ofthe string. In the common harp the strings leave the sounding board atan acute angle and the sound is similar to that produced by myinstrument with the strings extending beyond the sounding board.

Some of the advantages which my dulceano possesses over the common harpmay be enumerated as follows, to wit. By using wires instead of gutstrings it will remain in tune a long time, so that it may be playedwhenever desired; besides wires are not liable to be broken by changesin the atmosphere, or temperature. It is played with keys, which do notinjure the fingers like the strings of a common harp. There arecomparatively few pieces of music suited to the harp, or that can beexecuted upon it; but there is no piece of musical composition, howeverdiiiicult of execution, which cannot be executed on my dulceano. Itproduces music equally as line and finer than the common harp, whichnever has and never can be equaled by a piano. There is no separate oradditional instruction required beyond what is necessary to play acommon piano.

I believe I have describedtlie construction, operation and use or" myimprovements in musical stringed instruments, so as to enable any personskilled in the art tc make and use the same. I Will now specify what Idesire to secure by Letters Patent, to Wit.

I claiml. A sounding board and suspended bridge in combination With asolid bridge arranged at a distance from or beyond the sounding board sothat the strings extend across an open space between the sounding boardand solid bridge substantially as described.

2. I claim extending the strings one halt their length or more throughan open space beyond the sounding board substantially as described so asto make the instrument produce sounds like a harp instead of soundssimilar to those of a piano.

3. I claim arranging the hammers above the key board and making themstrike the strings toivard and opposite to the sounding board near thesuspended bridge instead ot near the solid bridge substantially asdescribed.

Il. I claim increasing the number of strings in an instrument having theproperties otl a harp substantially as described so as to make the Hatsand Sharps, Without the pedals used in the old harp, so as to dispenseWith the pedals for that purpose.

ANTHONY KUHN.

vWitnesses Trios. H. STANFORD, DANIEL BISCLER.

